Furthermore then we beseech you, brothers, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.
For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given to us his holy Spirit.
But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
And indeed you do it toward all the brothers which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brothers, that you increase more and more;
And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
That you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Why comfort one another with these words.
Canonical academic citations for 1 Thessalonians 4 (AKJV) — copy in your preferred format.
1 Thessalonians 4 (AKJV). Prime Bible, accessed July 24, 2026. https://primebible.com/akjv/1-thessalonians/4.
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Paul urges them to excel still more in pleasing God—especially in sexual purity, brotherly love, and quiet industry. He then comforts them about believers who have died: the Lord will descend with a shout, the dead in Christ will rise first, and the living will be caught up together with them in the clouds to be with the Lord forever—so they should encourage one another.
Pastoral guidance on eschatology and community life.
1 Thessalonians 4 is presented with the full Greek interlinear, Strong's numbers, and verse-by-verse cross-references on Prime Bible — a free, nonprofit Bible study platform.